Town Square

Wisdom on forum behavior

Jon Carroll wrote a fine column this morning about behavior on on-line forums like this one, based on the experience with the Well, the oldest of Internet gathering places. I think it's worthwhile reading.

Posted by George
a resident of Evergreen Park
on Apr 14, 2007 at 12:50 am

It's the Weekly's behavior that is hard to understand. [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.] The Weekly seems to like the traffic the trolls create, there are always new people who respond for a while until they realize they are dealing with an angry mischief maker, someone just expressing anger anonymously, trying to get a rise out of the readers. Or the nonsense of [portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.] Those meaningless posts seem ok with the Weekly.
The Weekly could limit the number of posts any one person can place in a day.Lots of things they can do to raise the standards here. For some reason, they aren't doing it.

Posted by Anonymous
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 14, 2007 at 11:50 pm

Did the Palo Alto Online Staff read the article?

First the Well is not anonymous and there is a monthly fee.

Here is a quick summary:

- Don't feed the troll.
- Remember Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
- God bless the bozofilter: This is a handy little tool that allows you to block out all the postings of a specific person.
- Ban the jerk.